11th Circuit upholds broad interpretation of Florida re-enfranchisement law

[Gothmog]

Link to tweet

[JustAnotherGen]

1. This is awesome

So now what is the asswipe in charge DeSantis - going to try?

[joost5]

11. Some welcomed good news...

Cynical side of me agrees with you that DeSantis and other anti-democratic GOPs will try something else.

[lagomorph777]

13. Now it's off to SCROTUS and Justice BeerBong.

[calimary]

17. Hey Ilike that, lagomorph777! Justice BeerBong!

Does he have a few before putting on his robes in the morning?

[HuskyOffset]

18. I don't know if you heard, but . . .

. . . he likes beer!

[calimary]

20. That's how I do my Kavanaugh impression.

“Ah like BEER!”

Usually done with body language suggesting an ape.


What a fucking GOON.

[cstanleytech]

14. I am sure he will try to come up with something that will only let the "right" people vote.

[Blue_true]

24. Hopefully, when the ex felons that got the vote actually vote, they will

punish the people that worked to make them invisible.

[Gothmog]

2. This ruling just came down

Link to tweet

[Hermit-The-Prog]

4. About time the will of voters prevailed.

[RAB910]

3. This is huge

Florida has been a purple state. Allowing more citizens to vote will turn this state reliably blue

[Blue_true]

25. The reason why republicans panicked?

The ex felons that are qualified to vote are by good amount, Black.

In Florida, being caught with a joint is a felony. But, it is doubtful that was exercised against White kids that got caught.

[Gothmog]

5. From Marc Elias

Link to tweet

[ScratchCat]

6. Please understand

This ONLY affects the 17 people who showed they are unable to pay.

[onethatcares]

7. in line with that

an avalanche starts with a few ice crystals.

When I voted on this amendment it was cut and dried to me, the republican legislature always throws lumps in what the people want.

[Gothmog]

9. There are plans to expand ruling

Link to tweet

[Blue_true]

26. The outcome affects a lot more people than that.

No one that is eligible should have to pay, even if they are right. Republicans in Florida were trying to institute a poll tax that selectively excluded certain people.

[edhopper]

10. They will still do everything they can to stop people from voting

they steal one election to steal other elections.

[mountain grammy]

12. Agree

[SWBTATTReg]

15. Good. Poll taxes of any kind are wrong. Just plain wrong. NT

[CaptainTruth]

16. And the FL deadline to register to vote in the primary was yesterday.

Deadline to vote in the GE is Oct 5.

[lark]

19. Hope they don't appeal to SCOTUS, which would side with fines and penalties being prohibitive.

Bet on it.

[Gothmog]

21. From Professor Hasen's election law blog

This blog has a link to the opinion that I will try to read later https://electionlawblog.org/?p=109623

You can find the 78-page opinion at this link. It begins:

On November 6, 2018, Florida voters approved Amendment 4, a state constitutional amendment that automatically restored voting rights to ex-felon who had completed all of the terms of their sentences.
Contemporary media reports suggested that as many as 1.4 million felons could be eligible for reenfranchisement under the law. Accounts differed as to whether this figure made Amendment 4 the single largest act of enfranchisement since the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920, the Voting Rights Act in 1965, or the Twenty-Sixth Amendment in 1971. By any measure, Amendment 4’s enfranchisement was historic.
Amendment 4 provided that a felon’s “voting rights shall be restored upon completion of all terms of sentence including parole or probation.” Following its passage, the Florida legislature passed Senate Bill 7066, which implemented the Amendment and interpreted its language to require payment of all fines, fees and restitution imposed as part of the sentence (collectively, “legal financial obligations” or “LFOs”). The Florida Supreme Court later agreed with the legislature’s interpretation of the Amendment—during the pendency of this appeal, it held that the plain text of Amendment 4 requires payment of all LFOs as a precondition of re-enfranchisement.
Following the passage of SB 7066, the seventeen plaintiffs in this case brought suit, challenging the constitutionality of the LFO requirement. Each plaintiff is a felon who has alleged that he or she would be eligible for reenfranchisement under Amendment 4 but for non-payment of outstanding LFOs. Each plaintiff has also alleged that he or she is indigent and, therefore, genuinely unable to pay those obligations.

The cases were consolidated in the United States District Court for the
Northern District of Florida, which then issued a preliminary injunction requiring the State to allow the named plaintiffs to register and vote if they are able to show that they are genuinely unable to pay their LFOs and would otherwise be eligible to vote under Amendment 4. From this order the State timely appealed to this Court.

Because the LFO requirement punishes those who cannot pay more harshly than those who can—and does so by continuing to deny them access to the ballot box—Supreme Court precedent leads us to apply heightened scrutiny in asking whether the requirement violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment as applied to these plaintiffs. When measured against this standard, we hold that it does and affirm the preliminary injunction entered by the district court.

Here is a link to the actual opinion https://campaignlegal.org/sites/default/files/2020-02/Document.pdf

[csziggy]

22. ONE day too late to let them register to vote in the primaries

Deadline to Register (Book Closing)

Eligible individuals can register to vote at any time. The deadline to register in order to participate in an upcoming election is 29 days before the election. The registration deadlines for 2020 are:

Presidential Preference Primary Election: February 18*
Primary Election: July 20
General Election: October 5

*Due to federal holiday, the deadline moved from Monday, February 17 to Tuesday, February 18.
https://dos.myflorida.com/elections/for-voters/election-dates/

I hope the judge does let the GOP disenfranchise these voters for the rest of this cycle.

[Gothmog]

23. Analysis: How a court battle on felon voting rights in Florida could impact 2020

Link to tweet

[JFlash]

27. Outstanding

nt